


spiraling madness

by literal_insect



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Existential Crisis, Gen, It/Its Pronouns for The Distortion (The Magnus Archives), Michael has a stutter, The Distortion, The Spiral
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24936121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literal_insect/pseuds/literal_insect
Summary: What Gertrude said was simple, just walk through the door and follow the map, Michael's mind is filled with panic and dread for what he might find, but he trusts her, so he opens the door and walks through.
Kudos: 21





	spiraling madness

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a character study i guess you might call it, about Michael Shelley becoming a part of the spiral. So, its gonna get kinda sad, and then really wacky,,,
> 
> Also, Michael has a stutter in cannon and I think that's very cool of him. So I wrote him with a stutter but I didn't do any stupid stuff l-like th-this, so don't worry. 
> 
> ((It ends on kind of a dark note, so sorry about that. You have been warned))

Michael Shelley had been on trips for the Institute before. It wasn’t often that Gertrude told him about some work they would be doing abroad, but it happened on occasion. So when she told him that they were going to Russia, specifically a place called Zemlya Sannikova, he didn’t think anything of it. And now there they are, the sole two passengers on a boat, aside from the captain, one Peter Lucas. They’re travelling north, through such a bitter cold that Michael would have never thought it possible. 

“Are you cold? Would you like me to find a blanket, or maybe another jacket for you?” Michael asks. Worrying about the old woman came easily for him, though right now it seems reasonable, the intense cold is almost unbearable for him so he worries for her. 

Gertrude turns to look at him, seemingly immune to the icy chill, and with a familiar smile on her face. “I’m alright. We’ll be docking rather soon anyway.” She says warmly, turning back to look out at the water. Her words seem to stay in the air a while, a calm, familiar presence for Michael amongst so much cold unfamiliarity. 

As the arctic draws closer, the water turns to ice. As their destination draws closer, the more uncomfortable Michael becomes. He looks to Gertrude, to see if it's taking a toll on her as well, but she is like iron. As she looks out at the water her eyes turn cold, and at once Michael starts to become afraid. 

“What is the name of the place we’re going to, I’m sorry but I’ve already forgotten.” He stumbles over a few words, but still manages to get out his question. 

“Zemlya Sannikova, also called Sannikov Land.” She pauses for just a moment, then says “There is a great evil there. And you’re going to help me fight it.” 

They stand there in silence, until they finally dock. It's strange to look at, and rather quiet, though Michael expected that. What he hadn’t expected was for it to look so much like a jungle. Going so far north he had expected snow and ice, like he saw on the boat ride here, but as he looks at Sannikov Land all he can see is a picturesque jungle. And as he steps out of the boat, he feels the unnatural warmth of the place, so different from the bitter cold he had just been experiencing. Despite the strangeness of it, he welcomes the warmth, finding comfort in it. 

\---------------------

The door that stands in front of them should not be there. It's a simple yellow wooden door, out in the middle of nowhere. The strangeness of it all isn’t helping with Michael’s confusion. He keeps telling himself that what he’s seeing can’t be real, but here it is. His mind seems to be shutting down with panic and terror, but he still manages to ask Gertrude a question. 

“Is this it? Is this what we’ve been looking for?” He says, though it takes longer than usual, his stutter worsened by panic. 

“It seems so.” She says in a familiar voice, but in a tone Michael hadn’t heard her use before, which only causes him to worry more. “It's simple though, you’re going to save the world.” Her voice is more gentle now. 

“Me? I’m afraid I don’t understand?” He says, though there is nothing in Gertrude’s voice that would imply that she’s lying to him. 

“All you need to do is go through this door.” She gestures towards the odd door in front of them, then looks through her bag and takes out a piece of paper and hands it to him. “You need to do this, for me, for the world.” 

He looks down at the folded paper she gave him, and unfolds it to find a map. But it doesn't seem to make any sense, the lines are all overlapping and inverting. But before Michael can ask about it, Gertrude speaks up. “The instructions on that map are very precise. You will need to follow them exactly, no shortcuts or skipping steps, alright?” He just nods slowly, still trying to make sense of the map. “And you’ll be here when I get back from… saving the world. Right?” He all but manages to ask. 

“Of course, dear.” Her voice is warm and familiar, and Michael believes her, he has no reason not to. Still filled with worry, he walks towards the door and places his hand on the handle. He looks back at Gertrude, hoping that she will change her mind and that they can leave this place. She should, seeing the fear in his eyes, but Gertrude is not that kind of person, so instead she just smiles and watches him expectantly. 

Michael takes a deep breath, his mind still filled with panic and dread, and he turns the doorknob and walks inside. 

\---------------------

The halls are surprisingly easy to navigate, considering that the map Gertrude gave him doesn't make any visual sense. Michael doesn't know how long he’s been in these ever-changing-corridors, it could be hours or even days, but despite that, he has calmed down significantly. He's thinking more clearly then before, and guiding himself easily along the brightly coloured walls and occasional painting or mirror. He’s following the steps that he had been given, and seems to be opening the correct doors and smashing the correct mirrors. The less he thinks about the impossibility and endlessness of the layout of these corridors, the easier it gets for him to navigate. 

Finally, Michael finds himself in front of a door. A door that he desperately hopes will bring him back to Gertrude. He very quickly opens the door and walks in. But as soon as he does he is overcome with an unbearable pain. His head feels like it's splitting in many different places. He feels his bones snap and twist and reform. His body is twisting, and being thrown around violently. He cries and screams and thrashes his body around, trying desperately to escape, to get rid of this pain. But just as quickly as it had started, it stops. 

The transition from him to It was disorienting, but the creature that is not Michael Shelley but is not not Michael Shelley finds comfort in that disorientation. And the way It’s experiencing the world now is so different from how It was only seconds before. As It looks around Itself it finds that It’s in another part of the corridors. The corridor at this moment seems overwhelming. The bright walls are a swirling mixture of pink and orange, the carpet below Its feet has an ugly pattern that is moving and swirling as well. It finds these things to be comforting, but also a bit too much to bear right now. It turns to a mirror to examine Itself. As It stands there It coxes Its twisting pieces into a form that somewhat resembles Michael Shelly. It isn’t exact, but where's the fun in that. 

The figure in the mirror shares very few things with Michael Shelley. It is the same height, and has the same face, but it's distorted slightly by bright swirling patterns that cover parts of Its skin, not too noticeable, but constantly changing. This creature’s hair is long and curly, almost never ending and the curls don’t follow any law of physics. Each perfect curl resembles a party streamer, but feels just like normal hair. Its eyes are also different, spirals and pools of colours that can’t exist. But Its hands are the most noticeable change, once they had been soft, with a few scars here and there, but now they are now large, impossibly large, with long, knife-like fingers. The creature spends a while examining Its new shape, it is almost familiar, almost comfortable. 

It decides to explore the corridors It finds Itself in, wanting to clear Its head which is still writing with thoughts not entirely Its own. Corridors that, It understands, are somehow a part of It. The more It thinks about Its current situation, the more distorted Its thoughts become, which isn’t entirely unexpected or unwelcome. 

The creature does not have Michael Shelley's memories, at least, not in the traditional sense. It is more so aware of them, and painfully so. As It thinks about Michael Shelley, It realizes that It knows something that he never did, and would probably have never found out on his own. It knows that Gertrude was lying to him. That every time she spoke to him, she was deceiving him. She knew how much he trusted and cared for her, and completely took advantage of that, eventually telling him that he could save the world, and she fed him to It. As It becomes aware of this, It starts to feel anger and betrayal which is rather strange as It isn’t used to having emotions. 

It stays in the corridors for a long time, not that it understands something as linear as time. But It knows that It can’t stay there forever. It needs to feed. To trap people in Its corridors and torment them until there’s nothing left to torment. The small part of Michael Shelley that is still there wants to fight against this urge, he tries to fight the urge to capture, contain and eventually kill innocent people in these corridors. But the urge is far too overpowering. There isn’t anything that that small part of him that's left can do, because he is now a part of this being. A creature that needs to do this to survive. So eventually he will need to give up, and just give in to the urge.


End file.
